User Reviews

Reviews by Dave128:

4/5 rDev +5.5%look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Enjoyed on tap at Mellow Mushroom in Lexington for 3.95 with a free glass! Well it turns out the free glass is just a small mason jar with the logo for the beer on it. Not too bad I guess that's just how we do it in Kentucky.

A - Red/dark amber. It's hard to tell much out of the mason jar especially with the red logo but it looks like a Kentucky Ale the way it is supposed to be.

T - Same as the smell. To me it really seems like Kentucky Ale with the proper amount of ingredients. It is well hopped and properly malted. Spicy hops and good bite of the red malt.

M - Medium bodied. Good amount of carbonation.

O - I've said it a few times this is what Kentucky Ale should be. The flavor is right, the hops are right, and the mouthfeel is right. All three of which are kinda lacking on the original Kentucky Ale. I'm glad to have stopped in today to try this one. You should too!

More User Reviews:

Got a growler of this from Party Town in Florence. Employee knew all about this beer's entry into the Great American Beer Festival and seemed proud to be serving it.

Appearance - Pours a beautiful, translucent dark copper into a standard pint glass. Little more than an inch of a head that lightly receded before giving way to moderate lacing along the sides of the glass.

Smell - The first thing that hits your nose, as the prior reviewer noted, is the great balance of hops and malt. A fairly strong, grassy aroma quickly follows suit and a hint of caramel finishes it out.

Taste - One of the most perfectly-balanced Amber Ales I've ever had. Not too heavy on either side, the malty sweetness shines through like any classic Amber but with much more subtlety, while the hops makes this a beer that is extremely refreshing and easy to drink.

Mouthfeel - Nearly perfect on the palate -- I only say this because it was heavy and smooth enough that another sip was never too far behind the preceding one.

Overall - A great collaboration beer, and a great one to drink to close out the last days of summer as the heat begins to die down. Not sure how much was brewed this past batch, but I'll mostly likely head down to Kentucky for another growler or two pretty soon just in case this was a one-time entry batch and will not be brewed again.

This stronger than usual American Amber Ale is the collaboration beer from Alltech's Lexington Brewing Company and Lexington homebrewer, John Spicer for entry into the Pro-Am division of the 2011 Great American Beer Festival. The result is a less sweet, drier, and hoppier version of many of the countless caramel-saturated Amber Ales that flood the market.

The beer decants with a gorgeous deep copper hue and bright clarity for a glowing appearance overall. Topped with a dense off-white cap of foam, the beer retains and laces beautifully with rings of lace that denotes each sip.

Balanced aromas of malt and hops swirl above the glass. Malty aromas of deep caramel, toffee, barley malt, and bread crust give an early first impression while the grapefruit, grassy, and zesty orange peel character from hops offer a equally stated rebuttal.

Flavors are a direct flavor response to the rich aromatic tone of the nose. Malty sweet with deeply caramelized toffee, bread crust, barley sugars, and a candied flavor that reminds me of Cracker Jacks. Lightly nutty of roasted pecans and pleasantly woody, the malt flavors merge well with the transition to hop flavor at mid palate before closing with a lightly resiny hop bitterness in finish. Citrusy with a white and red grapefruit mix, orange peel, freshly cut grasses, and a light minty woody bitterness and alcohol flavor late.

Medium bodied with early dense creaminess due to formitable malt textures and ample carbonation. But the beer quickly releases its weight to usher in a malty but semi-dry finish with a cooling minty sensation as the beer develops in finish.

Delivering an aftertaste of fleeting malts and lingering hops, the beer's drinkability is high and a great compliment to many American-style dishes. We wish John and LBC a ton of luck moving forward to this year's GABF!

Served in a mason jar. Great presentation. Pours a dark reddish brown. Remarkably red actually. A nice amount of off-white head. Pretty good looking. Smells rich and malty. I don't detect really any hops on the nose. Tastes bitter and malty. The malt backbone is nice. The hops are a bit too bitter and not adding as much as I'd like. Well carbonated and overall pretty solid.

Ok truth be told this was just a “tick” for me. I mean Kentucky Ale doesn’t really do hops well and a hoppy amber from them doesn’t really excite me. Add in it was more expensive than Java Dawg by two bucks for the 32 oz growler and well I came in with low expectations, but it isn’t like I can’t enjoy a nice sweet amber, it just wasn’t the Arrogant Bastard I passed on to try a new beer.
Pours a light orange and red color, a touch lighter than many ambers and frankly I think this reminds me a good bit of a jar of the natural honey you see in a health food store. The stop forms a thick creamy white head, that is leaving an amazing amount of lacing down the glass. Very light on carbonation in the body if that matters to you.
There is a malt opening here, bready, toffee, caramel….what you’d expect from an amber. The finish takes turn toward the hops, a lot of zesty but I want to stay “rusty” grape fruit and citrus notes. I really wish I could recall the hops that gives off this rust note as I pick it up a decent bit and nobody else uses that word (I need to plagiarize someone with a better vocabulary).
This tastes a hell of a lot like Sam Adams latitude 48. I would be shocked to hear this isn’t a mix of English and Amermican hops. Citrus from the American and grassy/earthy tones from the English. The difference is this one never really bites the back of the tongue, a sign of a bit less hops and a touch more malt power. If I buy this again I’m going to get a Sam Adams to sample side by side as this is really similar.
I don’t like how this one lingers on my tongue, it isn’t a clean, crisp, or really good finish. I’m shocked to say this, but with these hops a bit more malt would have been welcome. Still very drinkable and as mentioned below, this will go GREAT with a lot of foods. I can see this being just sublime with some spicy foods.
I’m not sure that this drinks like an Amber, but I’m not big on style and name. This is tasty beer and really good compared to most of what Kentucky Ale makes. It is a shame it was a one time release, it seems all their best stuff is keg only which is just a real shame. Nothing to seek out, but if you see it on tap, it is more than worth a try.